


you are meat you will not understand the reasons of a tree

by Ysavvryl



Category: Final Fantasy V
Genre: Backstory, Cruelty to Plants, Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 13:31:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20026627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: Artist: unknown, presumed ExdeathCategory: Prose, biographyMedium: blood ink on parchment-thin leather made from various creatures, bound with dragonhide leather, decorated with otherworldly gemstones, 'Eye of the Void' design may or may not be an actual eye.Warning: Reading this work in its original format has been known to cause cold sweats, weeping, disgust, nausea, headaches, disorientation, nightmares, auditory hallucinations, amnesia, obsessions with nails and meat, temporary bouts of insanity leading into a spiral of madness and destruction, spontaneous combustion, and addiction to sunbathing.  For the safety of our patrons, we recommend reading the paper copy displayed alongside the exhibit instead.  If you wish to support the family of the one who made the copy, please inquire about the memorial fund at the reception desk.





	you are meat you will not understand the reasons of a tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JackOfNone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackOfNone/gifts).

Day to night; night to day. Leaves grow upwards towards the sun; roots grow downwards towards the water. Little more needs to be understood. Little more matters.

There is noise.

“We should be able to destroy it now that it’s so feeble.”

“That’s what our fathers before us thought! And just what happened? It came right back to terrorize us again. This will put an end to it for good.”

“By sealing it within a tree?”

“Yes. Ugh, do I have to explain? The trees don’t think! Any spirit attached to them couldn’t think either. That way, a spirit like this will finally exhaust and extinguish itself.”

“But this is the Forest of Moore. The trees are more powerful here; they actively protect what’s here.”

“It’s not the trees, but the forest that is powerful.”

“But the forest is the trees.”

“No, not quite. Look, just trust us on this. This will get rid of this curse for good.”

“I’m not sure how true that will prove, but fine. Let’s get this over with.”

And there was pain, a nail struck through bark and into wood. And there was noise, unfamiliar noise within.

_There’s no way in hell that I will let these miserable mortals get away with this! I will wait an eternity if I must, but I will crush their spirits and hurl them headlong into the Void to be eternally tormented just as they did to me! And I will break every bone in their bodies to itty bitty splinters, hee heee hee hah hah ha BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh yes, they will squirm and squeal before my power and beg me for death!_

These things were little understood: images, words, emotions. But the gleeful pride felt good somehow. There was power to be grasped. Power to make it more than it was.

And thus, the tree became endarkened.

* * *

_To hell with this, anybody know how to get free?_

Over time, there were more nails that brought more voices into the internal cacophony.

_Forget it and listen to my tales of glory!_

The spirits felt cramped in their living prison, arguing constantly.

_You never deserved glory! Besides, my tales would blow yours out of the water! Like…_

Sometimes they found they had similar minds and fused together.

_You’re about five different personalities now, so who actually did that? I’m jealous…_

Sometimes they fought and one devoured another.

_Look here newbie: weak souls don’t survive in this tree, just like they don’t in the Void._

Void… yes, somehow it always came around to that.

_If someone were to become master over the Void, they would have unlimited powers and infinite servants. So tell me, how did you affect the Void as you claim?_

And no matter what the imprisoned felt…

_Trust me, I’ll get revenge on the foolish mortals who thought they could defeat me. And by jamming me into a tree, such nonsense._

…the truth was that the tree was their prison.

_In the end, we’re in a tree._

In the end, they were a tree.

_I am a tree._

_Don’t go crazy now. Or rather, any crazier than any of us already are. Let’s plan how to conquer the Void and get vengeance on the world for all of us._

_How many of us are in here?_

_Just count the nails._

_That doesn’t work. Many nails have been taken out and put higher up in the tree so that the mortals bring us more. Or if the souls attached to them were absorbed, the nails were simply discarded._

_Nails X Death leads to Extermination of Souls whereas Void divides World by World to Absence…_

_Please stop with that nonsense already!_

_Nails X Death? X… Death… Extermination by Void… Exdeath… I am a tree. I will exterminate the souls by the power of the Void, and thus return to silence._

_You’re getting annoying with all these abstract arithmetics that don’t mean anything._

_You are distracting._

_I am a tree. I am Exdeath. I will conquer the Void, for silence._

In the end, they were a tree.

* * *

There were some ideas that he didn’t grasp. They seemed to have come from the meat creatures that had their souls sealed inside him, the humans who had been branded monsters. However, these ideas came with such excitement that he wanted to understand them. He started off by slowly growing some roots upward; it was unnatural, his roots sought to grow out and down to locate water. The spirits taught him that willpower was important. Using his own willpower, he grew roots upward not for water, but to steal nourishment from the grasses underneath his branches.

They weakened and sent out scent signals to get their tormentor to find them undesirable. In that, Exdeath found the excitement he sought. He watched them wither and die, pleased with the results. But it didn’t last long, especially with how long it took him to get his roots to do that. The grass then refused to grow around him, the seeds sensing the danger and not even sprouting. There had to be some other way to instill fear and suffering in others.

If he wanted, he could transform his body so he could walk around and find victims.

The minds of the meat creatures thought that was the obvious solution. Exdeath felt unsettled at the idea. The Forest of Moore often shuffled its components around. When it moved trees like himself, it was disorienting to have to secure the grip of his roots and get a grasp of his location again. Then again, when the forest moved him again, he’d have a new batch of grass to terrorize. That was something to look forward to. He’d wait and see how that was, then try out moving himself.

In the meantime, there was a tree neighboring him that wasn’t being used as a prison for dangerous souls. Also unlike him, she was tied into the hivemind of Moore and didn’t have any thoughts to herself. Exdeath knew because he’d tried to talk with her and got not even pheromones as a reply. He’d struck her right through the trunk with a bolt of lightning for that, hoping it would kill her. As it hadn’t, she simply grew with a split trunk and adapted to it. It was annoying. Other than the split trunk, her bark wasn’t marred and her leaves were a bright cheerful green. One might even say she was a pretty tree. The wicked souls seemed more thrilled at the idea of having control over a pretty being.

Then a box of the nails that were used to pin souls inside him got left behind. Meat creatures lived to a quicker rhythm of life, so he couldn’t be sure how long it would be forgotten. With all of the power and knowledge that came from the souls melded inside him, Exdeath figured out how to lift the nails one by one and then shoot them right into his pretty neighbor. He’d grown to like the feeling of being pierced; it meant he’d be growing in knowledge and power. She was pained by the nails and yet unable to do anything about them. Eventually, the box was empty and he had to resort to pulling her nails out and shooting them back in. His own leaves trembled at the thrill and he laughed until it became a true sound, not just the silent ways trees communicated with each other.

But that wasn’t enough; there should be something more he could do to her. During the passing of the autumnal equinox, Exdeath got a devilish idea. He tried out more spells until he could shield himself in darkness. Then he placed an enchanted light over his pretty neighbor, one that mimicked the summer sun. With that, she and a few others around them didn’t catch on about the progressing season. Exdeath let himself rest with the shield of darkness while he kept the enchanted light going for longer and longer, until daytime did not end for the other trees.

Being stupid trees, they took in the light and thought it was good. But it did not give them the resting of night. They could not slow down and it became difficult to repair themselves. All the while, the forest grew cooler with the approach of winter. Most of the trees changed colors to drop their leaves and hibernate, even himself. The pretty tree and her neighbors remained green even when the first frosts came. They were aware they were in trouble, sending out distressed scents constantly. They had far too much energy to store, causing their growths to go haywire. And with no time to rest, there was no time to correct problems.

While Exdeath rested over winter, he kept aware enough to watch the other trees suffer under the torment of never-changing light. By the time spring came, he was surrounded by dead trees. It pleased him greatly.

But the Forest of Moore was now aware of the depths of his evil. It shunted him to its very edges and surrounded him with sand to protect the other trees.

* * *

For a while, Exdeath studied what all his beings knew. Combat and warfare, geomancy, magic of white, black, blue, and more, mysteries of the Void and the divided worlds and the crystals, things that the Forest of Moore knew, the societies and histories of the meat creatures, the forbidden knowledge of demons, torture, technology… as a being of innumerable beings, it was clear that his knowledge and power would reign supreme once he fully broke away from the Forest of Moore and moved on his own. But there was more he could do to ensure that he could not be overcome. He started building enchantments so that as long as the sun shone, even if he was out of its touch, he would be able to restore himself. Yet that was not enough. He would need control over the Void to become a god that none could defeat. Exdeath was certain he could do that, but also certain that he’d need to transform and move like the meat creatures in order to do what was necessary.

It was unnerving to move. Then one of the demons within him thought, wasn’t that because we are a tree and it’s unnatural for a tree to pull up its roots and move? But they were unnatural already and needed to divorce themselves even further from nature to become the god of the Void. Thinking that, Exdeath gathered his willpower and transformed his body. The various beings inside him all had different ideas about what their favored manifestations were, often not what they had been. If he let all those ideas out, he’d be an enormous chaotic mess and might not be able to accomplish his goals.

He needed a useful form and the meat creatures seemed to have an efficient one. While he didn’t want to turn to meat, he gave himself a body of wood and a shell of metal and fabric. It was modeled after the powerful knights that often accompanied those who did the actual sealing, since the knights seemed the most solid and strong. He also gave himself a sword to match those knights, like a long black thorn with sharp edges. As green was a color of nature, he didn’t want it on himself anymore. The meat creatures thought white was a color of purity and so he used that for his body. His shell took on a blue like the sky, since the sky reigned over everything like he eventually would, also gold since the beings both meat and demon felt gold was valuable. Other details to emphasize his power and authority were added as seemed useful, like spikes on his shell and a large cape of fabric.

With his new body, Exdeath turned to the desert to adapt himself to moving and fighting. He soon found that he could overwhelm the roaming monsters in the desert, even squash them underfoot. He had to hold back so he could get more practice with his sword in. Over the course of a month, he had slaughtered all of the monsters, animals, and plants that were in Moore’s desert. The forest itself remained closed tight to him, not willing to take him back. That was fine for the moment. But one day, he would make every tree inside Moore scream in pain and they would know that it was because of him. For now, he practiced until he could open a small portal into the Void to call out more monsters for him to battle.

The meat creatures could not completely understand the forest and had still come out to seal evil beings in him. Exdeath read the desert roads and would transform back into his old self when they did. After a year of this, he remained in his better self to meet with them. The puny creatures screamed and ran off in terror at the sight of him; he had to call up a wall of earth to keep them with escaping with another evil being he could fuse with. He sliced up the priests into bits and burned the knights to death in their armor, not letting any of them escape.

While ultimately a boring battle, it did point out that he couldn’t fool them into thinking he was one of them. Perhaps it was because they were puny creatures and he remained the size of a tree. Although he loathed to do so, Exdeath relented and shrunk his body down until he matched the meat creatures. But it did hold the promise of even better terror if he made them think he was one of them only to reveal his true size when they least expected.

* * *

There was a large kingdom on an island in the middle of the sea, accessible primarily across a big bridge to the mainland. There were millions of the meat creatures there, living brief but busy lives. Initially, they reminded Exdeath of bees in how social they were, gathered around to serve and protect a single leader. The way they communicated with body and sound was something he was inexperienced with despite what he could recall from the evil ones sealed up inside him. He came into their society as a quiet one, observing and figuring out how they got along. That would become important to crushing them later on.

While he could not enter in as the central leader, his expertise in magic and weapons was quickly recognized and respected. He got himself close to the king, through being a city guard to a palace guard, to a knight, and eventually to the recognition as a paladin. He fit in by following orders and fighting battles others could not take. In doing so, the people of the city hailed him as a hero and showered him with attention. Much of that attention he wasn’t sure what to do with, as it wouldn’t progress his mastery of the Void. Some of the meat creatures even had the idiotic notion that he’d want to mate with them. Somehow, his refusal to do so only increased the perception that he was holy and heroic. It was all so strange, but ultimately didn’t matter.

There was talk going around that the tree of seals had gone missing from the Forest of Moore, but most assumed that he’d simply died. There was one being that nearly caught onto the truth, one who said that the tree of seals might have grown the power to move around on its own. Strangely, it wasn’t one of the usual two-legged meat creatures. It was a four-legged meat creature that had a shell encasing its body. Sage Guido even looked over him with suspicion and asked questions that others would not dare ask the holy paladin.

“Where did you come from?”

“From a village on the outskirts of Moore.” That had been the first forest of meat creatures that he’d entered. Many of its buildings had been made of wood; Exdeath had entertained himself for a while on thinking of what these trees must have felt being chopped down with axes, sliced up with saws, ground down with sanders, and then nailed into large boxes or carved into the things inside the boxes. While the buildings with dull in mind even by tree standards, he imagined gleefully that he could smell their eternal suffering.

“Who trained you to be so skilled? Many people take their entire lives to master the schools of magic or swordsmanship, but here you have attained all of it.”

“I’ve had a number of old masters teach me their ways.” Although those old masters had dedicated their whole lives to mastering their trades and bending them to wicked ways. Exdeath had to constantly keep mindful not to seek out the things he truly enjoyed so as not to ruin his staged personality.

After many questions, Guido still seemed unsure. “Your armor seems strange, and it blocks your face. Do you know who you are?”

“Of course,” Exdeath said. “They call me Tim.”

“Hmm, is that your name or one of many that you hold?”

Thankfully, Guido didn’t make him answer that question and soon departed for his pond.

Years later, the king that Exdeath served died without an heir. Members of his family had died off in strange circumstances that none of the other meat creatures could explain. This was no coincidence as Exdeath had been silently cutting them out one by one. With secret poisons that few could detect, some accidents caused by vines weakening structures, infections caused by splinters or thorns, even a few violent acts that went unwitnessed, there was no other clear candidate for the next ruler. Exdeath used his reputation as a hero of the kingdom to claim its throne. The meat creatures rejoiced and felt it was a wonderful thing.

He kept his coronation a private event so that he could go without the helmet of his shell. Doing so had caused a maid to scream in fright and faint, forcing him to kill her and a knight who had come to investigate. Had there been something so wrong with his transformation? Exdeath had to enchant all participants in the coronation so that they thought nothing of the appearance beneath his shell. Once the crown was placed upon his head, he smirked and cast a spell that separated the souls and bodies of all the meat creatures in his kingdom. He merged their bodies together in order to remake the castle with them, then gathered their souls to transform into an army of monsters.

Having done that, he declared war on the rest of the world so that he could attain the pieces necessary for him to release the Void and take it for his own.

* * *

The other kingdoms of the world united against him, gathering up their best warriors to defeat him. Undeterred, Exdeath continued his quest to take control of the Void. The main problem were the Crystals, enigmatic gods that ruled over the elements and kept the Void sealed. There were four of them and they each had a presence in both worlds. He had attacked the Water Crystal as a test only for it to use its other half to restore itself. Unless he figured out how to cross to the other world, he would be unable to do anything about them. None of his beings were certain how to do that.

As he studied to find a way, he got a message that a meat creature was battling across the bridge. It happened on occasion and didn’t worry him too much. They kept trying and failing, only to be added to his castle. This time, though, the meat creature not only got into his castle, but made good progress through its dungeons. It saw through the illusions and wasn’t frightened of the truth. Intrigued, Exdeath left his study to meet up with the invader.

The meat creature was checking on chests trying to find something. Exdeath waited until he was heading back into a large room to meet with him. “What are you doing in my castle?”

“Whoa, you’re the great evil king here?” the meat creature said. “Ah, that’s nice and all, but I’m trying to gather some legendary equipment so I can challenge you and others as the great hero that I am! I am Gilgamesh, and soon I will be legend! So, ah, mind holding off on an epic showdown until I’m ready?”

Exdeath chuckled at his boldness, almost enough to grant the request. It would be nice to challenge himself, since the Void would surely challenge him. “Perhaps. What are you looking for?”

“Well since you ask nicely, I’m searching out a full set of Genji equipment, including a spear.” He tapped his helm. “I got this so far and heard rumors that there were some grand fellows around here who had more when they were alive. And I’d love to find some more legendary equipment for the collection, but for now I’m focused on the Genji stuff.”

“You mean like this?” He called out one of the treasures in his possession, the Genji naginata.

Gilgamesh grinned. “Oh yeah, just like that!”

Exdeath sent it away to where he could recall it quickly. “If you desire it so badly to enter my castle when you don’t intend to challenge me, how about a quick spar now? Weapon to weapon, no magic, just for some practice. We can have an epic showdown later when you’re ready, I’m patient.”

“Hmm…” Gilgamesh sized him up and considered the challenge.

“I’ll grant you the naginata if you satisfy me,” Exdeath offered. “The rest of it you’ll have to find on your own and I won’t keep the monsters here from seeking you out for battle.”

“Good, cause I wouldn’t want this to be too easy,” he said, bringing out the spear he had. “Alright, you got yourself a spar! Have at you!”

In this smaller form, Exdeath’s sword was shorter than Gilgamesh’s spear. The meat creature was also more nimble than him due to having lighter armor and could keep him at a distance. But Exdeath got in a few strikes that knocked Gilgamesh back from the force of them. The meat creature had trouble trying to get past his armor; his spear clinked uselessly several times trying to find some hole or weak area to pierce. Gilgamesh didn’t give up now that the spar was on, though. He pierced Exdeath’s exposed hands a few times, then in his leg. As the sun shone, the damage wasn’t much more than the nails and quickly healed.

Then Gilgamesh used a dragoon’s power to jump into the air, pounce against the ceiling, then crash deep into Exdeath’s neck with the strength of his whole body. He quickly pulled out and jumped back on the floor. “Whoa, sorry, got caught up in the moment.”

“It’s no matter,” Exdeath said, surprising Gilgamesh with how clearly he spoke despite having his neck impaled through. He then reverted back to his true size, forcing the meat creature to step back. “It will be as nothing tomorrow.”

“That’s incredible,” Gilgamesh said, perhaps reconsidering his challenge from the scents off him.

Exdeath called the Genji naginata back out; it was now little more than a stick in his hands as he dropped it in front of Gilgamesh. “You do fight well and your courage is commendable, if somewhat foolish. You may have this.”

Pleased by the compliments, Gilgamesh pulled the naginata out of the floor’s flesh. “Thanks big guy! Ya know, you’re more honorable than I figured for an evil king.”

Honor was nothing but a tool to fool others. Still, he nodded. “If you say so. Actually, I would appreciate your skills and strength in my service. There are a few places that I cannot currently go with information and artifacts I seek. I hear a lot about these places and I know there are some weapons and armor hidden around everywhere. If you work for me, you may take whatever you please along your path towards what I desire. Is that suitable?”

“Sounds alright to me,” Gilgamesh said. “I mean, I am a hero, have no doubt. I just don’t have a pressing need to prove that right now against you or anyone in particular. So if I can go off questing for your stuff and get my own along the way, that sounds just peachy. Sure, you got yourself a deal.”

“Very well,” Exdeath said. “I need to check my research before giving you a locale to start with. For now though, if you wish to continue your challenge in my castle against my other servants, go ahead. I know that all the other pieces of the Genji armor are around. Find them and get to my study without me having to send a monster to fetch you and I’ll throw in a bonus.”

“Got it, I’ll prove my worth!”

Exdeath had brought in many others to do his bidding: demons, monsters, even some other meat creatures. But Gilgamesh was peculiar among them. He had a spirit that was nothing like any of the evil ones that Exdeath had absorbed. Maybe he was actually a hero, maybe he was just a fool that wouldn’t do anything big enough to make others want to seal him away. For the most part, he did his tasks well.

* * *

Heroes came and heroes went. Heroes arrived and heroes died. Heroes defeated him. But, they had yet to destroy Exdeath. They certainly tried; they caused him a lot of pain which he didn’t mind. No matter what they tried, though, they couldn’t get past all of his safeguards. Exdeath was a tree; these meat creature heroes could not understand him. Exdeath was many beings instead of just one; he could think as if every leaf he had could think and come to a consensus. As he was, he could outwit them consistently and toy with their hopes. But most of all, they could not overcome how the sun always revived him.

This latest group, calling themselves the Dawn Warriors, had been most successful. Exdeath found himself too pained to move, too weak to get up off the ground. It was as though he’d been reduced to a tree again. However, he felt the sun in him. They didn’t know enough to challenge him at night. With some time, he could get back on his feet and terrorize them. They were arguing, he should be capable of at least that. But he’d have to flee and get outside this cave to fully recover.

Then they stopped arguing. They called upon the crystals to seal him off here in this world, underground where only his roots should be. He could still recover his strength, but now he truly couldn’t leave this spot. They had defeated him and it would not be easily undone.

Although they’d left, Exdeath growled. This defeat would be undone, as were all others! He just had to get the Crystals destroyed, something he’d planned on doing anyhow. He had contact with the Void as well. With this time being sealed, he could wait until the Dawn Warriors were old and analyze all his plans and knowledge. Then he could become a god and rule both worlds. Still, it was infuriating that these four had gotten the better of him.

But in time, they would suffer. He was patient. And for that, he would emerge victorious.


End file.
